Chapter Text
Helen Parr took a deep breath as she looked around this new location, an admittedly homey-looking village under a night sky filled with stars. After so many moves in the past, the feeling of walking into a strange new place shouldn’t have been so…intense. It was just a new neighborhood, after all. A new place to call home until further notice. So what was so different about this new place?
Well…everything, really. Every other move her family had gone through, from city to country to continent, had at least taken place in a single world. This place, Traverse Town, very much wasn’t .
How they’d all gotten to this point was still…confusing. Apparently, there was some sort of multidimensional battle that involved the forces of light and darkness, and one particularly powerful creature of darkness had swallowed up their world despite the Incredibles’ best efforts. The super family had only gotten away thanks to the intervention of some strange-looking teenagers with big keys the size of swords. They had reassured them that their world wasn’t destroyed, just “frozen in darkness”, and that they would be able to return home to their regular lives once this ‘war’ was over. In the meantime, they and everyone else who’d lost their homes to this darkness would find shelter here.
“This is where we’ll be staying?” Dash squinted at the cobblestone buildings and dim lights as they approached the main entrance.
“Yes, Dash.” Bob nodded somberly as he made a show of struggling with the large briefcase carrying all their super suits.
“This looks like a grandma land!” Dash complained. “Is there even electricity? Snacks? Can I even play video games here?”
Despite herself, Helen chuckled to Jack-Jack in her arms. At least they were handling this bewildering situation pretty well. Superheroes had to adapt to crazy things like this quickly, and they certainly had experience with moving.
“I’m sure you’ll survive, speedy.” Violet just rolled her eyes.
Dash wasn’t appeased and began charging up his legs until they started to become a blur. “I can’t take that chance! I’m gonna take a look around for an arcade, be back in tw-”
A mother’s hand on his shoulder stopped him from super speeding off. “Dash, no. We might be in a strange new world, but we still need to keep a low profile here. Remember what I said about our identities?”
Bob nodded with a sigh. “We shouldn’t…advertise that we’re supers. Not yet.”
“Yeah, the talking animals and the marshmallow robot might think we’re weird.” Violet snarked.
“What do yo-” Helen looked up and realized that the individuals greeting refugees at the main gates were, in fact, talking animals and a marshmallow robot.
A female rabbit with gray fur and what looked like a police uniform was hurriedly writing down notes on a clipboard while an orange fox wearing a green shirt and loose purple tie smiled at the slightly bewildered family. “Hey there, welcome to Traverse Town. I’m Nick, this is Judy, and the walking balloon is -”
Hello! I am Baymax, and I have been assigned as the resident health care specialist. I will scan your family and add you to the Traverse Town health database.
Bob froze up. Supers always had to be careful about getting themselves on medical records. “Um, we don’t need-”
Scan complete. You are exceptionally healthy.
“...darn it.” Bob groaned. “But thanks.”
“Ok, we just need your names for our records, and we can set you up in the third district.” Judy explained.
“We’re the…um…” Should they come up with new identities for this new place? That was what usually happened.
“Dashiell Parr.” Dash ended that train of thought with his impatience.
“Violet.”
“Bob.”
“Helen. And this is Jack-Jack.” The baby cooed in delight at the sight of the bunny, and the rabbit smiled back.
“Ok, the Parr family, then. Don’t forget to write that down, Carrots.” Nick remarked, nudging Judy’s clipboard into her chest. With an embarrassed chuckle, the rabbit quickly added their names to what looked like a pretty long list of refugees from the darkness.
“How soon can a house be ready?” Helen asked, glancing up at the sky. “We should get some sleep, it’s been a long day and it must be pretty late…”
“Actually, it’s only mid-afternoon.” Nick explained casually, tapping his watch. “There isn’t really ‘daytime’ here, so you gotta follow the clocks.”
I would also recommend taking Vitamin D supplements for your stay. Baymax chimed in. Honey Lemon will be happy to provide them at the pharmacy next to Julieta’s healing bakery in the main square.
The entire family blinked in shock as the news was calmly delivered. There was no sun here? Every other place they went, they could count on the sun rising in the morning. The fact that there wasn’t one here was a sharp reminder that they were in an entirely different world from the one they’d grown up in, facing an uncertain future. Even more so than the talking animals.
Violet took another look at the sky, an ocean of glimmering stars of many different colors, far more than their own home. “...At least the stars are pretty.”
The talking rabbit gave them a reassuring smile. “Listen, I know this is all…crazy overwhelming. Trust me, I do. You should’ve seen me on my first day here…”
“Yeah, she was running up and down the walls like a crazy bunny.” Nick smirked.
“Nick.” Judy groaned. “Like you were any better.”
“Hah. I was as cool as a cucumber, Carrots.” Nick chuckled, leaning his hand back.
Baymax raised a finger. I have video evidence proving…
Nick’s hand suddenly produced sharp claws, even while his expression never changed.
…The accuracy of that statement.
Judy coughed and smiled again. “The point is, everybody in this town has gone through what you’ve gone through, and we’re gonna face the future together. Everybody here is helping each other out through this…strange time. You’re not gonna be alone here, I promise.”
Helen managed to smile back. “Thank you, officer. We’ll…be happy to help in any way we can.”
“Yeah, we’re super…helpful.” Dash remarked, and Helen couldn’t quite tell if there was sarcasm in his voice.
“Awesome! Now, come on in. We’ll find you once we get a house set up, so don’t worry.” The entrance doors finally opened, and the Parr family took their first steps into Traverse Town.
Traverse Town’s main square was quite spacious, with a large water fountain in the middle and several very different buildings bordering the area. Right next to an open-air restaurant with candles and wooden tables was a hard pink bubble the size of a bedroom with the words Pharmacy spray-painted on. Another building had a rather prominent pointed hat with stars painted all over it, next to what looked like a shop advertising flowers. Helen wondered what flowers could grow in this place, though she imagined that the people here were happy to have them in this strange place.
And there were quite a few people here, both humans like the Parrs, talking animals like Judy and Hopps…and oddly enough, ‘regular’ dogs and animals that Helen would’ve expected. There was even a tiny group of all three in one of the corners, a civil but tense debate between a walking bison in a uniform like Judy and a normal-looking lion, being mediated by a small black boy in a white suit. At the restaurant, a blonde teenager with a large pink purse and big glasses was staring very intensely at one of the pastries, like it was a Rubik’s cube to be cracked. Just inside the star-hat building was an older lady in a deep red dress discussing a candle she was holding with an odd man with a long beard and blue wizard’s outfit. Several groups of children were milling about the courtyard in their own little groups, with two curly-haired boys by the fountain and a group of four girls chattering amongst themselves. Everyone present seemed to have expressions of cautious optimism and hope, though they couldn’t deny the seriousness of this situation.
Helen looked up and noticed two other women waving her over, a calm-looking asian brunette with a green suit and a tense-looking woman with long curly auburn hair and a yellow dress. It wasn’t hard to tell that they were both mothers, and Helen felt confident coming up to them. However, she still leaned into Dash and Violet’s ear before she walked toward them.
“Alright. Just remember, we want to look…” Helen paused, and her daughter dryly filled in the gap.
“Normal?”
“...Low profile. Let’s settle for that, and keep our powers under wraps for now.” Helen proposed. Vi and Dash just shrugged before walking to a nearby stand advertising ice cream. Low profile in a strange new place was always easier with a bit of ice cream.
Helen made sure Jack-Jack was secure in her arms before greeting the two fellow mothers with a handshake. “Hello, I’m Helen. My family just arrived.”
The redhead was the first to shake her hand. “ Hola! I’m Pepa.”
The brunette gave a small bow to Helen. “Ming Lee. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Bob noticed that a large wooden stretcher had been set up to the side, with a pile of heavy-looking blocks of wood almost as tall as him on top. On noticing a bulky-looking woman walk towards it with a determined smile, Bob decided on how he’d make a good first impression.
“Hey there. Do you need this stuff moved?” Bob asked.
The woman nodded firmly. “The hechicero Merlin needs this in the third district. Building materials. It’s…best to keep them close to where he needs them. Or things can get really messy.”
She shot a glance at the man in the blue robes - Merlin, apparently - who just harumped with a bit of embarrassment before turning back to the elderly woman’s candle.
“Well…” Bob proposed, cracking his back and smiling. “I might be able to help you move this.”
The woman smiled and shook her head. “Gracias, but I’ve got it.”
Before Bob could protest, the woman picked up the stretcher, heavy wooden blocks and all, and balanced it on one hand right above her head. Mr. Incredible just blinked in bewilderment as the woman waved to him with her free hand like she wasn’t holding something that had to weigh a ton. That in and of itself wouldn’t be too surprising to Mr. Incredible, but the fact that this unmasked woman was doing it in public still caught him off guard.
“You tomar el descando. Take it easy for your first day here. Ok?”
“O…kay…” Bob just stammered as the woman sauntered off confidently.
Helen wasn’t sure if she should laugh at that, especially when Pepa waved it off. “That’s my niece, Luisa. Don’t worry, she carries bigger stuff than that all the time.”
“...Really?”
“Si, si.” Pepa nodded before pointing towards the tiny young man who had apparently negotiated a truce between the lion and the buffalo. “And that’s Antonio, my little translator, and Camilo…”
Helen followed the woman’s finger to a young boy with a yellow poncho who was striding confidently towards the group of girls…and suddenly, he was a young girl with short red hair and a pink sweater. The girls in the group, including the one Camilo was now identical to, jumped back in shock.
“...he…does…that…” Pepa muttered nervously.
Helen felt a few raindrops on her hair and glanced up to see a small raincloud. As in, the size of an umbrella. A foot above Pepa’s head.
“...and…I do that.” Pepa’s smile got a little strained as she tried to shoo the cloud away before turning to Ming Lee with a red face. “I am so, so sorry, senorita, I tried to tell him that it isn’t like our old home where everybody’s used to him-”
Ming Lee just waved it off with a tiny smile. “Rest assured, Pepa, it will not be an issue with Mei.”
Sure enough, when Helen looked back, the girls had recovered from the shock and were just staring in amusement at the two identical redheads, who were mimicking each other’s movements as if Mei was standing in front of a mirror.
“Huh. Real impressive…” The two of them said at once as they leaned face-to-face with challenging smirks. “But can you do…THIS?!”
A bright pink POOF of smoke and a crack of thunder, and one of the ‘Mei’s’ suddenly transformed into a 12-foot tall red panda with an enormous smile on its face. The other girl just fell to the floor and reverted to a very wide-eyed Camilo. The other girls were remarkably unsurprised by this turn of events, unlike Helen and Pepa.
“Hah! His eyes were the size of dinner plates!”
“Literally.”
“I thought that only happened in cartoons!”
The panda’s triumphant smile softened as she reached out a hand towards Camilo, who took it with a somewhat red face. “Aheh…you win.”
Mei rubbed the back of her furry head. “I dunno, this is all I’ve got…”
“Me too!”
Camilo and Mei turned to see that one of the curly-haired boys had run up to them with an excited smile and a handful of water from the fountain. Before his friend could stop him, the boy had dumped all the water over his head…revealing that he had green fishlike scales and webbed ears.
Everyone in the courtyard paused for a second before Mei brought both Camilo and the merboy into a very fluffy hug. “Awesome! Shapeshifter buddies!”
Helen’s eyes wandered to the ice-cream stand, where Dash and Violet were watching the scene with somewhat perplexed expressions. The two kids turned to face their mother, who shrugged…and suddenly realized that her hands were free.
“Jack-jack?!” Thankfully, it wasn’t hard to figure out where the baby was toddling towards. Apparently he wanted to be part of the Shapeshifter Buddies too, and was waddling towards the group with remarkable speed.
With a sigh that was half relief and half resignation, Helen stretched out her arm and picked up her baby, swiftly returning him to her embrace somewhat sulkily. Strangely enough, the look her children gave her was much more odd than the fellow mothers or anyone else in Traverse Town.
“When in Rome.” she simply said.
Bob just shrugged, straightened out his back and easily carried his suitcase to where Luisa had walked off to, ready to volunteer a little more clearly and maybe challenge a fellow super. Dash just got a huge smile on his face and rushed towards Antonio in the blink of an eye. Violet just walked over to the newly christened ‘shapeshifter buddies’, but Helen could tell that she was planning to see if Camilo could copy her invisibility at some point. Poor kid.
Helen patted Jack-Jack on the head before turning back to her fellow refugee mothers. This would
definitely
be a good place for them to stay.